Last night I grabbed another book off the stack that World Fantasy Con had sent me and started reading it. And it was… horrible. Typos, awkward sentences, strange POV shifts.

And then I noticed “Advance Reader’s Copy” on the cover, and inside the warning “This is not a finished book. This galley proof has not been corrected by the author, publisher or printer.”

I know this book is now published and has a 4 star rating at Amazon based on 7 reviews. So presumably it has been corrected by author, publisher and printer. 🙂

This was a real eye-opening experience for me. Whenever I write something, I re-read it and think “Gosh, this is shit. It’s full of typos, awkward sentences and strange POV shifts! I could never submit this!” And yet this particular author did, and his publishing team helped him put a final polish on the book and get it into the stores. And maybe this is typical…maybe I’m not quite as horrible at this writing thing as I thought I was.